Thread: What's better?

I went with #2, I wouldn't want anyone to strive to speak like a native English-speaking-idiot. My (bad) Spanish I learned in South Florida sounds Cuban, low and slow, not like a Mexican or Puerto Rican. Nevermind like a Spaniard. My French sounds like an American that learned in school. I wonder what my Russian sounds like (besides horrible)

I'm just happy to communicate

I have a hard time in pockets of the Deep South

Quoting wikipedia:
"German and English also share many borrowings from other languages, especially Latin, French and Greek. Most of these word have the same meaning, while a few have subtle differences in meaning. As many of these words have been borrowed by numerous languages, not only German and English, they are called internationalisms in German linguistics"

These borrowings are what made me think german partly came from latin. Again I stand corrected.

I'd like to know more than two languages. I'm currently studying Spanish, Russian, and French. I want to be able to carry on a conversation in these three languages, then I'm intersted in learning German and hopefully a few more. I want to be able to travel and speak the native language, as I was unable to do when I visited France a year ago.

Argh, If you want to get all anally-retentive let me tell you that it should read "NEAR native level."

Originally Posted by DDT

I have a German friend who has lived in USA for 35 years and speaks English with almost no accent. He freely admits that it is still possible for a native English speaker to "lose him" in a conversation if they want to.
I think it is very hard, even impossible, to become as fluent as a native.

I think, there are some men who can lose me in Russian!!! It depends on which "sublanguage" (i.e. slang, ans so on) they would use. I believe that there will come a day when I can speak English as well as I speak Russian now!!!

Chuvak, you are from another planet, I lose you two times out of three. I wonder who besides you and me marked #1, noone else seems to have voiced it out. One person doesn't want to learn any foreign language, MasterAdmin would be my best guess, but who are other 5 people that want to be at a NEAR native level?

I encounter alot of foreigners at work (physics dept at a university) and I think several of them have a native level command of english. I'm not sure they can ever speak like a native, at least without some professional training, it seems like their accents never go away. Sometimes when the chinese get excited they speak english as fast as chinese which makes it very hard to understand. I know one russian guy who lived in canada for 9 years before coming here and he was shocked when I told him he still had a russian accent.

Accents is a whole different territory. I know that I have an accent, I can hear it myself, yet I cannot get rid of it because I don't know how. I also wouldn't know how to sing in key.

hmm, I can sing in key and I'm decent at imitating other peoples voices, perhaps I will be able to develop a russian accent.

To know more than one foreign language to a fairly high but not native level is better, because this will help u create a wider communication with wider parts of the world!

and the most important thing: Girls love foriegn accents! so dont speak like a native, if u want to be attractive

Originally Posted by Layne

hmm, I can sing in key and I'm decent at imitating other peoples voices, perhaps I will be able to develop a russian accent.

It's very possible, I knew a professional singer from Sweden and he could produce an amazing Russian accent while not even being able to understand what he was saying/singing.

Well the germanic languages have a similar pronounciation as Russian, so it makes it easier for them. Especially the rolling 'r', which americans have big troubles with.

Just because you have a foreign accent doesn't mean you can't speak the language as well as a native speaker. Americans have a strong accent but that doesn't mean they can't speak English well (most of the time).

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Well the germanic languages have a similar pronounciation as Russian, so it makes it easier for them. Especially the rolling 'r', which americans have big troubles with.

Their r is rolled in a different way. Listen, for example, to Rammstein's cover of Aria's Штиль, where they (perhaps intentionally) sing with heavy German accent.
And isn't English a Germanic language?

Originally Posted by basurero

Just because you have a foreign accent doesn't mean you can't speak the language as well as a native speaker. Americans have a strong accent but that doesn't mean they can't speak English well (most of the time).

That requires an answer. So here I am. Do you know the meaning of the word "наезд"?

Originally Posted by adoc

That requires an answer. So here I am. Do you know the meaning of the word "наезд"?

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Rammstein's cover of Aria's Штиль, where they (perhaps intentionally) sing with heavy German accent.

I don't think that was intentional...


I'd rather know more than one language at a non-native level, so then I could work on those to a native level, if it works that way.

It depends on a lot though, at that point depending on the languages, I may never have the ability to learn them to native-level. But if I got a great job oportunity abroad then I'd choose knowing one native language where they speak it in the country where the job location was.

Unless you have family abroad or a job oportunity, apart from a few other reasons, when you're a native English speaker, there's no real need to learn another language like there is for non-native English speakers to learn English.

Originally Posted by adoc

Originally Posted by basurero

Just because you have a foreign accent doesn't mean you can't speak the language as well as a native speaker. Americans have a strong accent but that doesn't mean they can't speak English well (most of the time).

That requires an answer. So here I am. Do you know the meaning of the word "наезд"?

Arrival?

Hmm, where is the joke?

Originally Posted by pisces

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Well the germanic languages have a similar pronounciation as Russian, so it makes it easier for them. Especially the rolling 'r', which americans have big troubles with.

Their r is rolled in a different way. Listen, for example, to Rammstein's cover of Aria's Штиль, where they (perhaps intentionally) sing with heavy German accent.
And isn't English a Germanic language?

Technically yes, English is. I was referring to the Scandinavian languages and German... I don't know what to call them but Germanic...

Volk: I never said that!

Originally Posted by basurero

Originally Posted by adoc

Originally Posted by basurero

Just because you have a foreign accent doesn't mean you can't speak the language as well as a native speaker. Americans have a strong accent but that doesn't mean they can't speak English well (most of the time).

That requires an answer. So here I am. Do you know the meaning of the word "наезд"?

Arrival?

Hmm, where is the joke?

наезд (slang) is an unprovoked verbal attack, often used by inet trolls, keep it in your vocabulary.